Following the end of the Group C era around 1994, Toyota decided to alter its plans in sports car racing by moving to the production-based grand touring (GT) classes for 1995.

The overall design of the Porsche 911 GT1 was also imitated by the MC8R (wherein the front chassis parts are modified from the original road car, and the rear uses a custom racing structure).

Mercedes exploited this by putting a small cubby hole into an unused area underneath the rear bodywork, although it was not as easy to access as a normal trunk.

Introduced in time for the 1998 24 Hours of Le Mans, the GT-One first appeared during the official testing period for the race held in May.

Three GT-Ones appeared, setting the 2nd, 5th, and 10th best times and easily beating out dedicated Le Mans Prototypes (LMPs), which were meant to be the superior class.

Toyota decided to follow the route of Mercedes and evolve the GT-One into a GTP class prototype.

In the official testing session at Le Mans, the GT-Ones were again fast, taking the 1st, 3rd, and 5th fastest lap times.

The design of the GT-One's wheel wells allowed for a blown tire to cause extensive damage to the mechanical linkages inside; after only 90 laps, the #1 GT-One driven by Martin Brundle was lost when it suffered an explosive tire puncture and was damaged beyond repair, unable to return to the pits and being abandoned on the track.

At this point, a large amount of the competition had been eliminated, with all Mercedes cars out of the race due to their famous accident and withdrawal.

During the final hour of the race, the lone GT-One driven by Ukyo Katayama was chasing the remaining BMW for the lead, but suffered a tire failure while lapping traffic.

Having lost the chance to challenge for the lead, it was forced to slowly continue along the track to return to the pits for a new set.

However, Toyota won the LMGTP class (the R391 being an LMP), which would have granted them automatic entry to 2000 24 Hours of Le Mans had they continued the GT-One program.

This would mark the end of Toyota's attempts at Le Mans, which had started in 1985, until its return in 2012 with the TS030 Hybrid closed-cockpit LMP1 prototype in the FIA World Endurance Championship.

[1] The logos were also absent during the Fuji 1000 km race, which was held in Japan, a country with no tobacco sponsorship restrictions at the time.